Mid-Century MacCollinses: An Alternative to Guidance of Youth and a First Butterfly Roof in Salem

The architect for that Otto J. Wilson, Jr. house in yesterday's note is a bit of a mystery. The only Salem comment is over at On the Way in a 2010 discussion of a different house:

Martha’s own house was built in 1954 and designed by Edmond M. MacCollin (graduate of Yale and Cornell) who designed several Salem houses and then went to work for the State, disappearing off the local radar screen.

Was there more to say about Edmond MacCollin?

Yes there was!

October 13th, 1949

Based on the tone of this two-day series from October 1949, he may have constructed the first "butterfly" roof in Salem.

October 14th, 1949

Apparently it met a good deal of skepticism and comment.

Unfortunately the house does not seem to be around still. The address floats around in the paper, all on the same block, but with different "tens." The most likely site, and the numbering most common, is on the corner of Mountain View and Candalaria, where there is a much newer house (perhaps from 2003). There might be more to find out about the demise of MacCollin's house with the butterfly roof.

MacCollin had come to town from the East Coast in part because he had married a Salem artist, Frances Kells. They seem to have met at or around Yale.

January 3rd, 1948

She was especially in the news in 1956. She had garnered lots of local support for her proposal for a pioneer statue in Bush Park, the commission won by Avard Fairbanks for his "Guidance of Youth."

January 29th, 1956

She had made two entries, "Tall Timber" (at left in the photo) and "Spirit of the Oregon Pioneer" (at right).

The Salem Art Association had recommended "Spirit of the Oregon Pioneer" for the commission. Frederic Littman, whose reliefs were on the Belluschi Bank demolished a few years ago, also had a work in contention.

February 14th, 1956

Pioneer Trust, who had responsibility for the Moores Trust Fund, made the final decision for "Guidance of Youth."

May 9th, 1956

The paper reported that

A degree of surprised dissatisfaction was voiced Tuesday by some Salem residents who felt a piece entitled "Spirit of the Oregon Pioneer," a second proposal submitted by sculptress MacCollin, should have taken preference over the Fairbanks work. The "Spirit" received a unanimous vote of approval last February from the Salem Art Association. It was also given a "preference" vote by some 70 per cent of the visitors to a photographic exhibit of the proposals at Bush Museum.

Another part of the story of "Guidance," then, is not merely that we chose it in preference to the Renoir "Venus," but also that we chose it over proposals by local artists.

MacCollins' proposals still expressed the ideology of the Pioneer Mother, but they seem noticeably softer, focusing more on creativity and generation, much less acquisitive and territorial. A kinder, gentler settler colonialism, perhaps.

The accompanying front page story on May 9th, 1956 gives more detail on the triumphalist gesture envisioned for the final installation:

"Guidance of Youth" probably will stand near the center of Bush Park, at what park officials describe as the "focal point." It will be on the crest of a ridge overlooking the lowlands — Bush Pasture — with the Capitol Dome visible in the distance.

In any case her work and history might be something to retrieve and revive a little.

August 27th, 1957

Shortly after attaining AIA membership in 1957, Edmond MacCollin seems to have left town for teaching in Texas.

He returned after a few years and was named partner in Groom, Blanchard, Lamen & MacCollin in 1963.

A commenter on the note at On the Way claims the Gerry Frank house is a MacCollin design also, but the time line doesn't add up very well. In 1955 the paper associated John Groom with it, but MacCollin's assocation with the Groom firm is a few years later, at first work in the summers and then the partnership in 1963. It's not impossible he worked on the house design, but this very general level of evidence poses difficulties.

Because of mid-century Modernism's dominant autoism, it is a style and set of forms that do not meet our 21st century moment. All the glass is rarely energy efficient and the large yards and suburban site dependency on driving for everything is a real problem. Clinging to them too strongly in a new wave of historic preservation is not going to be helpful in meeting our climate goals. At the same time, it was an historically significant movement, and we should have a better understanding of the movement locally and the houses and buildings it informed.

The MacCollinses had at least a small place in Salem's history of mid-Century Modernism, and maybe more. They deserve a closer look!

Related:

• "Guidance of Youth and the Ideology of Pioneer Mother Monuments" (2019)
  
• "Guidance of Youth Statue Needs More Discussion" (2021)
  
• "On Edge of Candalaria Heights Gerry Frank House Exemplifies a Type of Mid-Century Development" (2022)
• Other notes on the Pioneer Myth in Art
• The benefactor, Carroll Moores, is part of the clan of Moores descending from Isaac Ross Moores, and here's a little bit on the Moores Block, which the Pioneer Trust building replaced in 1910. So the statue commission is another, though less direct, instance of family history as public history.
  

Addendum, February 4th

Here's a little more on them.

Before the "Guidance of Youth" selection, Frances exhibited in a show and was in good company: Tom Hardy, Mark Sponenburgh, James Hansen, Hilda Morris, Wayne Taysom, Fred Fair, and Manuel Izquierdo.

November 4th, 1954

After the "Guidance of Youth" process, she was commissioned for a plaque at the State Library.

August 15th, 1960

August 15th, 1960

In April of 2021, the Library withdrew the plaque from public display in light of Marvin Pierce's exclusionary politics outside of her devotion to libraries.

Here's a picture of Edmond from the start to his second period in Salem.

July 9th, 1963

In the late 60s his partnership with Lamen and Blanchard was dissolved in unhappy circumstances.

He was involved in the Southfair apartments as part of the Hollywood Urban Renewal Area, and the NIMBYs came out. (There might be more to say later on this.)

August 20th, 1971

He moved out to the 12th Street Cut-off junction in a modern office building overlooking a branch of Pringle Creek.

October 24th, 1973

Frances died in 1997.

April 6th, 1997

And Edmond in 2002. It says "his favorite works...were his private home designs."

March 31st, 2002

Since a new house replaced the butterfly roof house, not likely later than 2003, it is reasonable to correlate that transition with the two deaths and estate matters.